By Sam Llanes
Supporting Scriptures:
Matthew 7:24-25
1 Corinthians 3:11
John 15:4-5
I love a good reset. Give me a plan, some goals, a new routine, and a reason to get disciplined, and I’m ready to go. There’s something exciting about deciding that today is going to be different. I’m going to pray more, read more Scripture, take better care of my body, be more intentional with my family, waste less time, and finally deal with some of those things I’ve been putting off.
There’s nothing wrong with any of that. Actually, I think discipline is incredibly important. The problem comes when I start believing my discipline is what holds my life together.
It isn’t.
Jesus is.
In Matthew 7, Jesus describes two people who build houses. One builds on rock and the other builds on sand. What’s interesting is that both people actually build something. Both houses probably looked pretty good when the weather was nice. The difference wasn’t obvious until the storm came.
Then everything underneath the house mattered.
Jesus says the person who hears His words and puts them into practice is like the wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came, the water rose, and the winds beat against that house, but it didn’t fall because its foundation was on the rock.
I think sometimes we spend so much time working on the house that we forget to inspect the foundation.
We work on our careers, relationships, health, finances, ministries, habits, goals, and even our spiritual disciplines. We can build something that looks incredibly impressive from the outside while underneath it all we’re depending on our own strength to keep it standing.
Eventually, a storm exposes that.
I’ve lived long enough to know that motivation comes and goes. There are mornings when I’m excited to open my Bible and mornings when I’d rather stay in bed. There are seasons when ministry feels incredible and seasons when it’s exhausting. There have been times when business was thriving and times when everything seemed to fall apart. I’ve experienced seasons where I felt incredibly close to God and others where I had to keep walking by faith when I couldn’t feel much of anything.
If my faith were built on my emotions, circumstances, discipline, success, or ability to hold everything together, I would have lost it a long time ago.
But those things aren’t my foundation.
Jesus is.
Paul says it about as clearly as possible in 1 Corinthians 3:11:
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
That’s what I want us to remember as we go through The Reset. The goal isn’t to become so disciplined that we don’t need God. The goal of every discipline is to bring us back into deeper dependence on Him.
I don’t read Scripture because checking the box makes me righteous. I read Scripture because I want to know Jesus.
I don’t pray because enough prayer earns God’s favor. I pray because I need communion with Jesus.
I don’t rest because I’ve mastered some perfect wellness routine. I rest because Jesus is Lord and I’m not.
I don’t serve because I’m trying to prove that I’m a good Christian. I serve because Christ loved me first and His love is changing what I do with my life.
Even obedience can become exhausting when we try to manufacture it through willpower alone.
Jesus says in John 15:5, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
Nothing is a pretty strong word.
I’ve learned that I can accomplish quite a bit through stubbornness. I can grind. I can push through exhaustion. I can create something, build something, or force myself through another day. But there is a massive difference between accomplishing something and producing the kind of fruit Jesus is talking about.
Real spiritual fruit grows from connection to Him.
That’s why Christianity isn’t ultimately about trying harder. It’s about abiding deeper.
The disciplines matter. Your choices matter. Obedience matters. What you do after reading this matters. But none of those things can carry the weight of being your foundation.
Only Jesus can do that.
So if you’ve missed a few days of The Reset, don’t quit because you broke your streak. If you’ve struggled with one of these disciplines, don’t turn conviction into condemnation. And if you’ve been crushing every challenge, don’t start trusting your performance more than the One these disciplines were supposed to point you toward in the first place.
We’re not building our way to Jesus. We’re building our lives on Jesus.
The storms will come. Jesus never promised otherwise.
Build on the Rock.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Take a few minutes today and honestly examine what you’ve been depending on to keep your life together. Is it your discipline, income, relationships, reputation, intelligence, talent, routine, or even your ability to be a “good Christian”?
Then bring it back to Jesus. Spend some time with Him without trying to accomplish anything. No checklist and no performance. Open Matthew 7:24-25, read it slowly, and ask God to show you any part of your life that you’ve been trying to build on something other than Christ.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. If the things I currently depend on were suddenly taken away, would Jesus still be enough to hold my faith together?
2. Have my spiritual disciplines been drawing me into deeper dependence on Christ, or have I started trusting the disciplines themselves?
3. What area of my life do I need to intentionally place back on the foundation of Jesus?
PRAYER
Jesus, You are the foundation of my life. Forgive me for the times I’ve trusted my discipline, ability, success, or strength more than I’ve trusted You. Thank You for giving me practices that help me grow, but never let me confuse the practices with the Person they’re supposed to lead me toward. Teach me to abide in You, obey You, and build every part of my life on Your Word. When storms come, remind me that my security isn’t found in my ability to hold everything together. It’s found in You. Amen.
Sam Llanes | 3rdBeat.org | Follow @samllanesmusic on IG